Release: InData 2.0 for InDesign 2

This release includes a whole slew of fixes and small features that you’d expect early in the life of a product.

Changes

Fixed a preferences dialog problem where sometimes only one panel would be available, or the panels would be mislabeled, or all panels would display at the same time.

Fixed the headers update progress dialog which wasn’t closing automatically after encountering an error and displaying an error message (e.g., incorrectly ordered frames). Before, the user would need to click on the Stop button to dismiss the dialog.

Imported data now correctly replaces all selected text (or a substory as specified in an external script) when that selection doesn’t start at the beginning of the story. Before, a selection that was part way into a story would be left after the imported data, rather than removed.

Fixed a problem that was causing master pages to be applied to the wrong page. This occured when InData was used in conjunction with InFlow to automatically add pages.

Fixed an obscure problem with specifying a data file within a prototype that could cause the import to fail. (WinOS only)

A registered copy of InData will now “enable” the InFlow plug-in, which is now a separate product.

Exporting to PDF after running an InData import no longer crashes InDesign. (InDesign should now be more stable in general after an InData import.)

A page within a PDF may now be selected using the new picture property pictureimportpage. E.g., <<set pictureimportpage of pic 1 to n>> where n is an expression resulting in a non-negative integer. Page numbers begin at 1 (one), but page 0 (zero) may be specified in order to use InDesign’s global default (the page last set in the PDF import options dialog).

Specifying page zero is the same as not setting the pictureimportpage property at all. Invalid page numbers (negative or out-of-range values) result in the first page being imported.

The cropping of an imported PDF image may now be controlled on a per-picture basis using the new picture property pictureimportcrop. E.g. <<set pictureimportcrop of pic 1 to n>> where n is an expression resulting in one of the following values:

0 (zero) – uses the InDesign global default (the cropping last set in the PDF import options dialog).

Fixed a crash that would occasionally occur immediately after selecting the data file to import.

Fixed a crash when when the preferences dialog was initially opened from the InData dialog rather than from the menu.

Grouped header/footer text frames are now updated by Update Headers/Footers. Previously, they were being ignored.

InData now works more closely with InFlow in order to add pages when needed, rather than, in some cases, waiting until all records have been imported before adding pages. This may slow the import somewhat, depending on the complexity of the pages being added, but removes the potentially lengthy pause (that was looking like a hang for large documents) while Waiting for document view to update… at the end of the import.

Tables (and other non-frame inlines) in prototypes are now ignored. Before, they were causing InData to insert garbage into the resulting story.

The view preference Hide document window now actually prevents window updates. Before, it was working like Don’t show document changes, which still allows updates on certain actions. (Mac OS only)

Implemented various performance enhancements which reduce the need to close palettes in order to increase processing speed (although we still recommend closing the Links and Pages palettes for maximum import speed).

The progress bar now correctly resets to 0% when switching from skipping records to importing records. Before, it was remaining at 100% until progress reached 1% whereupon it would reset to 1% (and work correctly thereafter).

InData will now find pictures relative to a template document, or to a document that’s been converted while being read (an InDesign 1.5 document, for example).

Fixed user interface problems under OS X.

InData’s import file selection dialog now supports the selection of any file type in addition to just text files. (Mac OS only)

When attempting to use an empty prototype, an error is now issued instead of displaying the import dialog with nonsensical values.

Added InData’s About… menu to InDesign’s About Plug-ins… menu.

InData will no longer crash when trying to import into the same text frame as the prototype with the cursor resting after the last character of the prototype.

Fixed a potential crash that could occur while opening the preferences dialog from InData’s import dialog.

Fixed a condition where a “stale” undo would still be available after an import, the selection of which might crash InDesign.

InData preferences modified from the import dialog no longer “stick”. They were overwriting the document’s preferences.

Supports Unicode snapshots. You can now select the snapshot’s character set (Mac OS, Windows, or Unicode) in the data preferences panel.

Substory names, marks, and mark references are now included in tagged text operations (import & export).

Keyboard shortcuts for InData’s various special characters are no longer pre-defined. (Plugins are essentially prohibited from pre-defining shortcuts in InDesign 2.0, a “feature” that’s supposed to protect the user.)

Instead, you can insert chevrons and the various prototype equal sign characters via the Type > Insert Special Character menu (also available via textual context menus with a right-click on Windows or a control-click on Mac OS).